If
you are making a Texas-set noir, you know you are going too compared to the
work of Jim Thompson – the great noir writer, who set much of his work there,
among the low level criminals and regular folk who become criminals in an
attempt to get out of their dead end lives. Bad Turn Worse, directed by Simon
& Zeke Hawkins and written by Dutch Southern, knows they are going to be
compared to Thompson – and they don’t try and hide the influence he had on
their film. In the film’s first dialogue sequence, Sue (Mackenzie Davis) gives
Bobby (Jeremy Allen White) one of Thompson’s books, and tells him to read it.
“You’ll like it – it’s about here”, she tells him. The pair of them are in the
summer between high school and college – and they cannot wait to get out. Sue
is the smartest of the pair – she has outgrown this town a long time ago, and
isn’t really trying to hide that anymore. Bobby is not quite as intellectually
curious as Sue – but he doesn’t want to stay in town and work in the kind of
dead end job that everyone he knows does. Sue’s boyfriend is Bobby’s best
friend – BJ (Logan Huffman) – who is a lunk head, but is putting on a brave
face knowing that his “best friend and best girl” are about to leave him
behind. BJ decides that what the trio really needs is one last blowout before
the pair leave him behind – and he has a wad of bills in his pocket that will
pay for that weekend in Corpus Christi. Bobby and Sue don’t ask questions about
where the money came from – and just go out and help him spend it. We know
where BJ got it though – he has stolen it from his and Bobby’s boss, Giff (Mark
Pellegrino) – a low level criminal who thinks he’s a little smarter than he
really is. But what he lacks in smarts, he makes up for with meanness –
returning from their weekend, BJ and Bobby find Giff kicking his Mexican
employee who was supposed to guard the money. Even after Bobby – for something
his friend did confesses, Giff still shoots the Mexican, who should have
guarded his money better. Giff may not be overly smart – but he’s sharp enough
to figure out that anything Bobby did, BJ and Sue would also be in on. And
instead of killing the trio – he tells them that to make it up to him, all they
have to do is rob Giff’s boss – a mobster called Big Red. According to Giff,
that will be easy – but of course, nothing goes according to plan.

Bad
Turn Worse is by no means a great film – but for its first hour, it is a good
modern noir. It is a clever twist to set the movie in the summer between high
school and college – which has been the setting for countless teen movies, of
course, but never a noir like this (at least to my recollection). What’s
remarkable is how easily that oft-documented time suits a noir like this. The
three main characters are bored – in different ways – but basically their life
is in a holding pattern. Sue knows she is going on to bigger and better things
– the types of things she has read about in all of her books. She fancies
herself the smartest person around – and to an extent she is, but she isn’t
quite as smart as she thinks she is. Bobby is acting the part of a guy excited
to leave town – but a scene late in the second act with his family (a quiet
one, that happens so quickly, I almost I missed it) suggests that he is hiding
more than it seems – and that part of what he is doing is putting on an act to
impress Sue, which works, to a certain extent. Neither of them take BJ that
seriously – but they should. He isn’t quite as dumb as he seems.

Unfortunately,
Bad Turn Worse comes apart in its final act – which has one twist and turn
after another, and involves multiple instances of the talking villain featuring
them say things like “It was all part of the plan” – and then proceed to
explain their plan, only to realize that someone else has double crossed them,
and will eventually have to explain what they did. It gets to a point where in
all honesty, I just stopped caring, and wanted the film to end.

But
the film does work for most of its runtime – and shows real promise from the
first time directors and writer. They were smart enough to try not to be overly
ambitious their first time out – and basically have constructed a solid noir –
with some fine performances. It may not be the most original film of the year –
but it’s a fun little noir for most of its runtime.

About Me

I am an accountant, living in Brantford, ON - and although I am married and have beautiful daughter, I still find time to watch a lot of movies. This blog is mostly reviews of new movies - with other musing thrown in as well.